N. 



246 Dwellers of the Sea and Shore 



its sidewise progress pulling the pellet along by holding 

 it in the hollow formed by the curvature of its rear- 

 ward legs. Every burrow has a number of these char- 

 acteristic pellets in its vicinity. At best, the burrow of 

 the fiddler crab is a temporary affair; the animal alter- 

 nately building and abandoning many homes during the 

 course of the summer. 



I have alluded to the presence of more than one 

 individual in a shaft. With the arrival of summer 

 comes the call of love. The amorous pairs, whose 

 embraces last the greater part of a day, seek the seclu- 

 sion of the horizontal tunnel at the bottom for their 

 tryst. Throughout the w^hole of June, I find, on prying 

 into various retreats, many couples so engaged. At 

 this time, too, the male seems heightened in color, the 

 red patches on his ponderous cheliped becoming de- 

 cidedly garish. He affects his best raiment for the wed- 

 ding. The marital life is not for long, however; no 

 sooner have they relinquished their embraces than they 

 separate for good. 



. During this month many females can be seen bearing 

 a large, dark-red spongy mass on the abdomen. It- 

 would not be hard to guess, even without the lens, that 

 this sponge is a batch of eggs. But the jars of my lab- 

 oratory will give us more information about them than 

 could possibly be obtained at the beach. So let us col- 

 lect a few of these fertile females: the thing is easy, a 

 thrust of a spade will quickly unearth any who have 

 disappeared in their burrows. Then transferring our 

 pretty creatures to a pail of salt water, we take them 

 home. One point should be noted here which may be 

 of value later in our observations : contrary to the usual 



